The Cost of Ignoring Mental Health at Work
We don’t talk about the real cost of mental health in the workplace enough.
Not just the dollar signs. But the cost of tension in the team that never gets addressed. The cost of talented people slowly burning out in silence. The cost of a culture where everyone looks busy, but no one feels safe.
Mental health isn’t a soft issue—it’s a structural one. And choosing not to prioritise it doesn’t make it disappear. It just makes it harder to manage when it finally shows up—loudly, urgently, and often too late.
It’s Not Just About Sick Days
Yes, the numbers matter. According to PwC, untreated mental health conditions cost Australian businesses around $11 billion per year in absenteeism, reduced productivity, and staff turnover.
But behind that figure are things every HR or People & Culture leader knows all too well:
The team member who used to be switched on but now disengages in every meeting
The quiet tension that lingers after conflict is brushed under the rug
The high performer who resigns suddenly and says they’re “just tired”
The manager who avoids conversations about mental health because they’re afraid of “saying the wrong thing”
When these things become normal, it costs more than performance. It costs trust.
What Happens When Mental Health Is Ignored?
1. Burnout becomes your baseline.
When workloads stay high and expectations stay unclear, stress becomes part of the culture. People stop raising it. They just adapt—until they can’t anymore.
2. Presenteeism flies under the radar.
Employees show up physically, but they’re mentally exhausted, anxious, or distracted. You don’t always see it in the metrics—but you feel it in momentum.
3. Good people quietly leave.
They don’t always tell you it was about burnout or culture. But they leave looking for a place where they can breathe, belong, and feel supported.
4. Claims go up.
Psychological injury claims in Australia are increasing, and they take longer to recover from than physical injuries. They also highlight where leadership or systems failed to act early.
5. Culture becomes reactive, not resilient.
Without strong foundations of psychological safety, teams struggle to adapt to change or have hard conversations. Stress builds. Performance suffers.
And Then There’s the Reputation Cost
Workplace culture isn’t private anymore. Candidates read reviews. People talk. The way your organisation supports—or avoids—mental health becomes part of your employer brand.
Investing in mental health is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s a culture marker. It signals whether people matter in your business, or whether they’re just resources to be managed.
So What Does Taking It Seriously Actually Look Like?
It’s not always a huge budget or a shiny wellbeing program. Often, it starts with leadership behaviours and everyday systems that say:
We take psychological safety seriously
You don’t need to hide when you’re struggling
Asking for help won’t be used against you
Your role shouldn’t come at the cost of your health
Some of the most impactful actions are simple:
Training managers to lead with empathy
Embedding Mental Health First Aid across teams
Creating space in workloads for rest and recovery
Normalising conversations around stress and burnout
Listening to feedback—and actually acting on it
You Can’t Afford to Ignore It
The cost of mental health isn’t always loud. It builds slowly—in disengagement, in culture drift, in leadership avoidance. But eventually, it shows up in performance, reputation, and risk.
And the longer you leave it unspoken, the more expensive it becomes.